Interview with Filmmaker Katherine Castellaw (CIGARETTE LIPS)

CIGARETTE LIPS was the winner of BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY at the April 2020 Female Film Festival.

A Film Freeway Preferred Festival:

Matthew Toffolo: What motivated you to make this film?

Katherine Castellaw: I had an acting coach years ago who was encouraging us to write our own scenes, and as an example he said something along the lines of, “it could simply be two people sitting at a table, having a conversation”. Immediately, the image of two women sitting across from each other, smoking cigarettes, popped into my head. The image kept coming back to me throughout the years, and every time it came to mind, I could never really make out the faces, just the lips. So, it started from a visual. When I finally sat down to write it, the dialogue just came to me. I didn’t really know what I was going to write until it was done…